The Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) and Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Islamabad on 6th January 2022.
Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA) is a non-profit organization founded to empower Pakistani freelancers through mentoring, providing opportunities, collaborating with government, industry and academia, and providing them a platform as well as a support group to help grow their career and overcome their challenges.
Pakistan has registered remarkable growth in recent years and become the fourth fastest-growing freelancer market in the world. Pakistan’s current freelance market consists of more than one million individuals working in various specialized fields. STZA envisions collaborating with PAFLA to provide an enabling environment to the freelancer industry in Pakistan where the self-employed workforce is treated as equal partners and contributors to the economy.
Mr. Amer Hashmi, the Chairman of STZA called for undertaking joint efforts to make Pakistan a leading enabler and top marketplace for freelancing by providing ease of doing business, capacity building, mentorship, and broad basing the technology jobs to all corners of Pakistan to achieve the sustainable economic growth.
STZA aims to jointly organize and arrange youth focus awareness sessions, workshops, and training programs with PAFLA for the youth, establish a brand presence among academia by appointing university students as brand ambassadors. Primary qualitative research will be conducted including interviews, surveys, and questionnaires, to assist STZA in creating a robust framework to identify the gaps and challenges of the freelancers’ community of Pakistan.
